There's A Monster In The Alphabet

There's a Monster in the Alphabet

From School Library JournalGrade 3-6-Recent discoveries in Egypt indicate that the letters of our alphabet might have originally been pictures, possibly put in an order that told a story. Using his imagination, Rumford retells the myth of Cadmus, the Phoenician hero who brought the alphabet to Greece. A was a picture of an ox, and Rumford's story starts with Cadmus in Greece, where he is told If you seek your fortune, follow an ox with moon-shaped marks. The illustration shows a letter A placed upside-down on the ox's face to indicate how the picture might have come to be. The mixed-media illustrations, inspired by ancient Greek art, are in tones of rusty orange, black, and purple. The dramatic scenes take up each spread, with a few lines of text telling the story across the bottom, and a few explanatory notes at the top. The story is exciting on its own, but readers will enjoy the added layer of the alphabet's story. Rumford gives no details about how much of the story is his own elaboration, and readers will find their curiosity only tickled by his endnotes, which explain how much is still unknown about our alphabet. A chart compares the English, Phoenician, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic alphabets, and allows readers to decode the phrases Rumford placed into his illustration-in Phoenician. Artful design, dramatic execution, and attention to detail mark this complicated but thoroughly enjoyable book. Like Rumford's Traveling Man: The Journey of Ibn Battuta 1325-1354 (Houghton, 2001), this is a title for readers intrigued by the ancient past and its connection to our lives today.Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CACopyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.According to Herodotus, an Ancient Greek historian, a Phoenician named Cadmus brought the alphabet to Greece. In the ancient myths, Cadmus was a hero who fought a ferocious monster and founded the city of Thebes. Cadmus was so famous that his deeds were told and retold throughout the ancient world.In this modern retelling, James Rumford uses the alphabet that Cadmus brought to Greece to recount the heros own story. Part truth, part fancy, this different kind of alphabet book takes its reader on a journey to the distant past, when our letters were not just marks to record sounds but were pictures of eyes and hands, doors and fences, giant teeth and . . . monsters.From Publishers WeeklyFor older readers, the myth of Cadmus (reputed to have brought the alphabet to Greece) is reimagined in There's a Monster in the Alphabet by James Rumford. The author explains what each letter stood for (A was once a picture of an ox; N, the monster's serpentine curves), and weaves the history into a story. Glorious illustrations call to mind the images of a Grecian urn, set against a backdrop of fiery orange, black and purple watercolors. Ages 5-9.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.From BooklistGr. 1-4. Cataloged as folklore and arranged as an alphabet book, this volume is based on a combination of ideas more complex than either category would suggest. From archaeology, Rumford takes the concept that our letters developed from pictures and from Herodotus the idea that a Phoenician named Cadmus brought the alphabet to Greece. To these, he adds the mythological story of a Greek hero who defeated a monster and founded the city of Thebes. The alphabetical conceit (D was a picture of a door) encumbers the telling, though teachers discussing the development of the alphabet may find it useful. The last section, The Descendants of the Phoenician Alphabet, shows English, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic letters that developed from each of the 22 Phoenician letters. Older students may be intrigued by the concept; however, children just learning their ABCs might be a little confused by an alphabet book in which the letters are presented out of order. This eclectic and not entirely successful combination of myth, history, and linguistics is illumina